Sunday, 12 June 2016

"Too Many" Power Stations?

On the train back from Hsinchu on Friday I read an editorial in the Taipei Times by one "Jay Fang" (方儉), who is apparently chairman of something called the "Green Consumers’ Foundation". It was utterly appalling...

Leaving aside the accusation that Taipower has deliberately lied to the public, he derives the conclusion that there are "too many" power stations in Taiwan from the observation that installed electricity generation capacity is greater than actual electricity consumption. But generation capacity is supposed to be greater than actual consumption! It is essential for two reasons. First, power stations must be shut down regularly for scheduled maintenance and therefore substitute capacity must be available to supply the grid. Second, there must be sufficient reserve capacity available in the event of unforeseen emergencies that cripple one or more power stations.

If installed capacity was approximately equal to electricity consumption, then Taipower would be failing the public and putting us all at risk. That would be a case of too few power stations.